Jim Geraghty:

For now, this is a p.r. disaster; imagine if the equivalent of yesterday’s train crash had occurred in South Carolina while the governor was incommunicado. Having said that, political life is full of moments that seem momentous at the time and fade into irrelevance – in 1988, Bill Clinton gave what was called the most boring convention speech in American history, in 2000, George W. Bush bombed in his appearance on the Letterman show. At one point it was considered a big deal that George H.W. Bush said, after debating Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, that “we tried to kick a little ass last night.” Another veteran strategist who has worked with Sanford in the past thinks that this is normal for Sanford, but that his usual behavior looks different under national scrutiny. “His m.o. when he takes a few days off is to do it very under the radar and totally check out, but this time political opponents — of which there are a lot more after this stimulus battle — whipped up a firestorm on a slow news day and the immediate responses from his camp didn’t do much to calm things down,” said the veteran of Palmetto State politics. “I do think these political opponents overreached on this one, though, and any political damage they hoped to cause the governor will be mitigated by the transparency of their motivated attacks.”

More here.